What Can You Do?

My belief is that this will not be "won" by publicity.

Publicity without action? What's that? So Brett Kimberlin is a bad man. He knows he's a bad man. His public-record convictions demonstrate he's a bad man.

His associates and donors probably know he's a bad man -- and they probably appreciate having a Bad Man to do their Dirty Business.

No, this will be resolved by either judicial action or legislative action. In a court of law, or an Act of Congress, or an act by a state government.

So what can you do?

If you are interested in seeing justice and Free Speech prevail, please write or call your Congressman (or a nearby Congressman, or a Congressman known to be responsive to abuses by the left, if you think your own Congressman won't act).

Write to him and ask him or her for the following tangible steps, or any other steps he might think prudent:

In addition to reading his record into the Congressional Record, to finally end this absurd contention that it is now apparently illegal to mention the facts laid out in US federal court records, there is tangible legislative action that can be requested:

* That a 501(c) "charity" must certify its principals and employees are not engaging in harassment, intimidation, or attempts to punish free speech, on pain of perjury if this is false.

Will Brett Kimberlin's business partners and co-principals sign such a certification?

* That a 501(c) principal conducts his legal affairs through a licensed lawyer and not pro se (on his own behalf) unless he can demonstrate that he is indigent.

See, 99% of lawyers would not put their license at risk for frivolous crap like this. Kimberlin can because he has no law license to lose. He represents himself, as as is his right as a citizen... but then, he has no right to run a 501(c). I think a 501(c)'s principals can be slightly burdened to have their suits signed off by a real lawyer, who can face sanctions for false or vexatious litigation against Free Speech.

* That they urge the FBI and DoJ and IRS investigate this matter, as well as possibly-related crimes of intimidation of Free Speech, such as Patterico's and Mike Stack's SWATting.

Are those related? We don't know. It would be nice to know, however.

* That the Government Oversight Committee (or whichever committee is proper) hold hearings on the possible abuse of 501(c) charities for uses against the public interest.

* That Congress stiffen penalties (or add them) such a punitive damages and possibly inductive relief against anyone attempting to use harassment and intimidation to suppress Free Speech. And that they add a law which permits a judge to rule that a litigant bringing vexatious lawsuits with the purpose of chilling free speech be henceforth required to post a large bond before suing, and to have his lawsuits signed off by a lawyer or judge before filing.

I am no expert in this area. Quite frankly, I don't know what, specifically, can be done. These steps seem reasonable to me, and accomplishable; but perhaps they are unworkable.

Our Congressmen are, however, experts in these things (or have staffers who are experts).

We can at least ask them to put their expertise to use, searching for some resolution to this.

We should all remember that this is supposed to be a participatory democratic republic.

We have the right to petition our representatives with our concerns and our grievances.

We should exercise that right.

Our Congressmen, as we keep insisting, work for us. When their are outrages, abuses, and injustices, we should ask them to take an interest.

This is how laws are passed -- by concerned citizens writing to their Congressmen and asking them for their aid.

Complaints that remain in a blog's comments area might as well be written on the ice of Saturn's moon Titan. You cannot blame Congressmen for failing to act when they've never been asked to actually do anything.

If they don't know about it, why would they be expected to act? If their constituents and other citizens don't alert them, how can it be charged that they are to blame?

This is a representative democratic republic. And a participatory one.

Ultimately, government is not -- or at least should not be -- left solely to representatives.

It's on us.

It's on us.

No one can blame Congress for failing to act if citizens fail to act first.

They're not psychics, and they do not read every single blog in the world. They probably read three, just to have a sense of things.

They do not serve blogs. They serve citizens.

And citizens must make themselves heard.

Here's an Easy Thing: Ask Congress to pass a special law against SWATting with serious penalties -- like 10-20 years.

Telephone lines are a federal concern. The use of telephone lines to both waste police resources and put citizens' lives at risk should be a major crime.

Add a kicker penalty -- another 10 years -- if the crime is determined to be conducted for the purpose of intimidating or squelching free speech.

posted by Ace at 01:59 PM

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